Horse Country hosts an Art Camp led by Claudia Coleman who also runs the Jr Riders Art Discussion for young artists. Her paintings hang in many noted collections, including that of the late August A. Busch, Jr, the Masters of the Foxhounds Association of America, and Evergreen Farms.
How many of you ever lie down beside your horse to sketch the view? I hope not many of because this is not a safe move. However, it would be an awesome perspective! You could find a sculpture in a park for the same effect, or draw your horse when he's standing on the van and you are on the ground. Boy, will he look big! A sketch from aerial point of view -- flying over the riding ring could be done from a giant crane, but all the horses would spook and that would be that. However, a perch in the hay loft or a grandstand would have the desired effect.
Why are views like these so shocking? It's because we generally spend most of our time in one position on planet earth. Where you can get greater ranges in perspective for your compositions is when the subject is actually in a gully below you or up on a hillside.
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But how do we make sure our drawing is right? There are a few little
mechanical drawing exercises you need to do to get the feel of perspective,
and it is all geometric. I have drawn the basics of perspective showing
the key elements: the Horizon Line, the Focal Point, and
the Parallel Lines. The good old railroad track is the prime example
of course. Two lines and the space between them get closer together and
smaller respectively as they disappear into the distance. This visual effect
happens because the earth is round!
So grab a piece of paper and a ruler and draw a line bisecting the paper horizontally from side to side. Pick a point near the center of the paper on that line and make a dot ... the Focal Point...there. Think of the line... the Horizon Line... as the surface of the earth. The part below the line represents the land and the part above the sky. Presto, we have a painting going here! Now, somewhere in the foreground draw a box, it doesn't have to be square and it can go above the Horizon Line if you like as well as below. Now connect all four corners, using your ruler, with a line to the Focal Point. Now, draw another box within those lines to the Focal Point and it will look like the box is further away. This is perspective!! |
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What good is all this un horsey stuff? Perspective lets us put all of our elements in a composition where we want them. In other words the dog in the background will not look too big or too small. The jumps in the ring scene you are drawing will look like they are in the right place. |
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When you are drawing your outline for a painting, let's say, and you have three buckets in the stable scene, if you aren't sure they are the right size for where you want them in the composition, take a piece of paper the same size as your composition and draw the horizon line where you want it. Put the focal point where you want it then draw the bucket closest to you. Connect a few points of it to the focal point and then draw the bucket further away within that frame just like the box. |
So for your drawing lessons on perspective, play around with your viewpoint
by putting the horizon line low on the page, high on the page etc, and
you will get all those different views we talked about when we were squirming
on the ground beside your horse. (DO NOT DO THAT!)
As a last exercise for this lesson, actually this could be a weekend project, take your pocket camera and set it on wide-angle if it has choices of lens and take a picture of your horse head on. Then have someone hold him while you draw the same view. When you get the pictures back you should see a difference. Another tip for adding photos to your scrapbook is always make your horizon line cross about where the elbow is on the horse and you will get great side shots. You've noticed how pro photographers scooch down to take THE picture, well it helps stop the falling over syndrome and makes the horse look a little bigger and more glamorous than he might be!
Lesson 1: Bones and
Angles
Lesson 2: Perspective
Lesson 3: Light and
Shadow and Weight
Questions? just e-mail Claudia!